Fig Jam

On a walk with the dog the other morning Tim found a fig tree leaning over the side of the road laden with fruit. I joined him on the dog walk this morning with stealthy plastic bags in pocket to pick as much as we could carry - 3kilos it turns out. The property which the tree is growing out of is owned by an older lady, who clearly is never going to pick them, and we figure we will give her some jam in repayment...

The jam is on the stove right now filling the house with the most incredible smell and I'm so excited for my first proper bit of country cooking. (That said, I have been making home made lemonade since getting here.)
I thought good old Stephanie Alexander would help me out with a jam recipe, but alas no. So I turned to good old taste instead and used this one. I've doubled it, using 2 kilos of figs, and 1kilo of sugar, 2 lemons plus rind and a cinnamon stick. The other kilo is going to be eaten fresh, made into desserts and salads over the next couple of days and perhaps dried too.
The amazing news is there are heaps more figs to come on the tree so we will be going back every couple of days to collect some more. Lola is going to get very sick of that walking route I think!

Check out my kitchen assistant... so helpful.

Polaroid

I love our new life. That's all.

*Thanks to Cat for the Polaroid of our little family at our little blue house.

Flea Market Finds*

Last weekend we went to a 'tender'. We hadn't heard of it before but it's basically the Salvos doing a silent auction on all the really good stuff they hold back. You can put down whatever price you want and if yours is the highest you get it. We won 2 fowlers preserving kits, plus jars, lids, rubber bands and clips. A telescope and this sweet little cabinet! Mega Score! Now we are feeling a little bit more savvy about what things go for too and can't wait to get back and do it all again!

Ps. The iron and the medical tin are both flea market finds also..

More flea market finds over here.

Hi my dears. I start my new job on Tuesday and am lighting a show in the Adelaide fringe festival this weekend so I need to go off the radar for a little bit again. I do have some flea market finds for you though and I'll be back soon!

Oh hi there...

Since we last spoke I've:

Gotten up really early to drive to Sydney for a wedding.

Had our car break down 5 minutes before the ceremony started and had to have it towed back to Wagga (edit: Thank goodness for insurance!).

Went to a beautiful reception. In a freakin' castle. With a photo booth.

Gotten up really early again to catch the train back to Wagga.

 Picked up our Lola from the kennels. (She has forgiven us now.)

 

Had the cutest couple in the world come and stay with us and be our first guests.

Floated down the river and seen a platypus (no photographic evidence but it blew our brains!) and enjoyed some more country sunsets.

Drunk a lot of gin and red wine and eaten tasty food.

 Oh and a very exciting item turned up in the post...

Flea Market Finds*

These babies are from another trip to the same op shop as last week! I swear I can't leave there without something just slipping into my car!

First up: this little hair-pin legged table. Just what we needed for out the front, to place our drinks on when we're enjoying the morning or evening sky (see yesterday's pictures!)

And a mini rocking horse. Okay, so husband's eyebrows where seriously raised with this purchase. It's for our future child's room, which, yes I may already be decorating in my mind, don't judge me! No, the future child is very much on the horizon, no breath holding for big announcements. But look at it! It's sweet right?! And with both items coming in for an even ten bucks all together, what's wrong with any of that I ask?!

More flea market finds over here.

Things to Be thankful for*

* Friends weddings. Gosh darn I love weddings and there are two on today and I wish I could be at both at once but alas I can only be at one.
* Free eggs from my folks and our neighbour.
* How quickly our puppy is learning.
* Meeting nice young (well... our age!) people in our town. Yay potential friends!
* Clean floors.
* Dinner parties going off without a hitch.
* Thunder and lighting. Gorgeous!
* A simple cheese and tomato sandwich. Yum.
* The sensation of being in scorching sunshine but it raining as well.

Ps. No that's not a bushfire its an electrical storm! Amazing!

More Thankfulness over here.

Link Love for Friday*

 * Love this.
* I'd love to get a letter with one of these stamps.
* Venus as you've never seen her before.
* Mmmm egg sandwich. (Gosh I wish Deb would move over here and become my housemate.)
* Star Wars. Dogs. Need I say anymore?
* Beautiful love stories.
* Gorgeous year planner.
* I think Lola needs some of this gear...
* Amazing photos from WPP.

My Creative Space*

There is a big spotlight here. And I mean B.I.G. When going in to grab some curtains for our guest room, I couldn't go past these three fabrics. They look fabulous together and awesome in our living room "colour scheme" {read: what we have and how it is vaguely coming together}. Anyway, being lazy when it comes to sewing, and only having an antique (gorgeous) hand driven sewing machine, I cut around some cushion inserts I had, sewed 3 sides together and made one piece of fabric long enough to make a tuck at the end, like on a pillow case, for the cushion to sit in. No buttons, no zips, no hand sewing. Genius. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it earlier. Anyway, as long as you don't look inside them at the wonky sewing and loose threads, you'll see they look rather splendid!

Oh yeah and the pink one is all creased because I just got up form sitting on it to take the picture! Tehehe. Nothing like a bit of real life eh?


More Creative Spaces over here.

Oh yeah and...

Happy Valentines.

It's actually my Dad's birthday today and I'm far more into celebrating that than a hallmark holiday. We're cooking a feast for him tonight which is such a treat as we live so close now. This song is for him as he introduced me to Tom Waits and I love him for it to this day. Thanks for being the perfect combination of ridiculously intelligent, fun, handy, comforting and awesome. Love.

Before & After: Arm Chairs

I have these fabulous parrot chairs on loan from my mum who in turn has them on permanent loan from a friend. They are a little worse for wear, poor things, but they are super comfy to curl up in and sink into and I love the shades of green in them. Having a puppy around the house now means that any loose dangely bits of fabric may get eaten and made worse, plus I wanted to freshen up the darlings. Whilst sorting through my fabric scraps box I came across this gorgeous cotton that I picked up in an op shop in Adelaide over Christmas. I had just enough to do both, I hemmed it and gave it some corners so that they just slip over the worst of the wear.

Introducing: Lola

Me: Hey Lola this is my blog.
Lola: Can I chew it?
Me: No please don't chew it Lola, meanwhile please take Tim's sock out of your mouth.
Lola: Me? Sock? What? Oh you mean this old thing... why... I didn't even know.
Me: hmmmm, you're lucky you're so cute.
Lola: I know.

Lola was at Yass pound. The pound recognised a dog with potential and called ARF, a Canberra rescue organisation and they collected her. We bought her off them. She's a german shepherd crossed with who knows what else! She's about 7 months old, enjoys taking us for walks, is scared of the broom, the vacuum cleaner and the lawn mower, likes anything soft and chewable, chasing us as we chase the ball and people. Seriously, worst guard dog ever! She's the new addition to our family and is enourmously helping with our country folk cred.

{Whoops seems like Lola fully took over my blog for a few hours there, all fixed now!}

Flea Market Finds...

I told you this town was good. Sideboard $25, Wardrobe $70. They both need a little bit of love, but the sideboard is genuine 70's laminate (mmm!) and is exactly what I was looking for for the living room. If anyone has any fantastic ideas about how to make it looks a little less shabby lemme know! The wardrobe is for the guest room to store bedding, our winter coats and a little space for guests too. It has beautiful drawers inside and awesome bakelite handles. *love* Soon enough I'll show you them in situ, the guest room is getting a major overhaul this week (so far its been the I-dont-know-where-to-put-this-so-I'll-put-it-in-here room) and we are almost done getting rid of the bleurgh beige/brown/olive trims in the living room.


* More flea market finds over at Her Library Adventures.

Things to be Thankful for*

* How hysterically fun dogs are.*
* Although she has escaped, twice, she is only interested in going next door to see the neighbours dog.
* Yoga. In particular our new yoga teacher here who looks like a trucker but is incredibly bendy!
* The sheer potential of our garden space.
* A new and surprisingly excellent coffee shop has opened in this town! Woot!
* The stars and how we can see them so brilliantly here.
* The massive Bunnings and Spotlight. So handy when you're setting up home!
* Late night walks to admire the moon with my love.
* Phone chats with faraway friends
* My parents being just around the corner. Lovely.


        * Did I mention... we got a dog?

Link Love For Friday*

* Imagine doing the same job for 60 years!
* Paris Vs New York.
* Genius gumboot idea.
* Sandwich as art.
* Gotta love free online magazines!
* An oldie but such a funny read.
* Find out your scale within the universe. 
* Awesome illustrated rant.

Happy Friday Y'all.

These parts...

* Our matching boots outside the back door.

* Wild cornflowers(?) on a walk.

* Getting the laundry in order.

* Being greeted by a rainbow at the front door.

* At the top of the hill on our walk.
* Discovering what was behind our boarded up fireplace.

* More incredible evening light.

* Chairs for two at dusk on the front verandah.